Is This How The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere Will Play Out?

The Walking Dead's seventh season has one major moment drawing viewers from around the world. Everyone will be tuning in to learn the answer to the summer's biggest question: Who did Negan kill?

While the cast and crew of the AMC series have confirmed that the kill will be reveleaed in the show's returning hour, they have not made it clear exactly when we should expect to see someone lose their head. Given The Walking Dead's style of story telling, it's possible for the moment to be held until later in the episode despite Season 6 leaving us in those moments.

Take a look at the Season 5 and Season 6 premieres. Both episodes used a "Then" and "Now" format. While 5x01 only shifted between the present and flashbacks a couple of times, the 90-minute Season 6 premiere, titled "First Time Again," told its story by switching between the past and present for every couple of scenes.

Will The Walking Dead's Season 7 premiere follow First Time Again's lead?

Here's a theory...

Episode 7x01, The Day Will Come When You Won't Be, will follow a flashback format, teasing Negan's kill, but following it up by showing the after math in Alexandria. One by one, the potential victims on their knees in front of Negan are revealed coping with the loss of their close friend on their journey home and back inside of their walls.

One by one, survivors will be revealed, with misleads over who died leading us to believe some of our favorites are safe when actually they will never make it home themselves.

Not only might we see Alexandria in the premiere but we may even take a ride to the Sanctuary with Jeffrey Dean Morgan's villainous Negan.

Then, there's the theories regarding multiple kills. Morgan himself went on record to say Negan is "not just going to kill one person" in the premiere. As the different timelines tell the stories, we may see one character bow out, leading us to believe the rest of our survivors are safe, all the while wondering why we haven't seen another familiar face back inside of the Safe-Zone.

The bigger gut punch of the episode could be the explanation of their absence being revealed at the episode's conclusion.

Of course, there is the chance that the premiere will play out through linear story telling. The episode can kick off with an extended view of Negan's eeny-meeny-miny-moe game, ultimately revealing the entire brutal process and showing us the unlucky victim before the first commercial break.

As far as, "Who died?" Some clues may have been left in the remains of whoever the unlucky winner is. While some see Maggie's engagement ring among the rubble, others see Hershel's clock which belonged to Glenn.

One has to wonder how the team writing The Walking Dead can fill the 45 minutes following Negan's hard-to-watch kill. We certainly won't be watching the group cry in the RV for all of that time.

The Walking Dead returns for its seventh season on October 23 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.